Kevin Magnussen Says He Wanted To Race With Father Jan Magnussen At Le Mans

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Kevin Magnussen hoped to turn this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans into a family affair. The 22-year old Danish racing driver told NBC Sports he wanted to race for Corvette Racing at the annual endurance special alongside his father Jan, but the team had already locked in its drivers for the two C7.Rs.

Magnussen raced for McLaren in last year’s Formula 1 season, however he was dropped this year as the team hired on veteran driver Fernando Alonso. With no where to race, he turned to his dad to see if he could get him a drive with Corvette Racing at Le Mans.

“I asked my Dad if he would ask Corvette if there was an available seat there,” Magnussen told NBC. “That would be really cool to do, be teammates with your Dad at Le Mans and try to win the class, but they had already signed the drivers for the car.”

Corvette Racing might have considered the younger Magnussen for the role, however he didn’t inquire about racing for the team in time. Magnussen says he “got the call quite late that I would not be racing in Formula 1,” so his options for finding a team to race for were very limited.

“It’s been very frustrating,” Magnussen said. “I desperately wanted to race this year and it has been tough immediately after learning that I didn’t have the drive. It was very sad times. I was looking forward to having another year.”

Magnussen says he’s “fully focused” on getting back to F1, but if that doesn’t work out, we’d love to see him behind the wheel of a C7.R. That said, we’re sure the team’s driver lineup for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, consisting of Jan Magnussen, Oliver Gavin, Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, Tommy Milner and Ryan Briscoe, is more than capable of putting a yellow Corvette in the winner’s circle.

Actually the Corvette Racing team isn’t able to retain their No. 3 and No. 4 numbers at Le Mans, at it’s FIA-governed, not IMSA. It’s an entirely different series and the low numbers like No. 3 and No. 4 are usually reserved for prototypes in WEC.